" Sexual Division of Labor: what transformative policies”

1. "Sexual Division of Labor: what transformative policies” " The Contribution of Women from the Lowest Income Groups to the Economy: How Time-Use Studies can Enable an Accurate Valuation” Devaki Jain* Member erstwhile South Commission Currently Council member , National Institute of Advanced Studies

2. A feminist perspective on valuation I want to suggest three things: • focus our attention on women from the lowest income and no-income decile • replacing our quest to integrate unpaid work into macroeconomic frameworks • with integrating unrecognized work of all types into the same.

3. Further suggestions We carry the learning we receive from: • Analyzing the burdens, the undervaluation of women’s work • The inequality they address due to the stereotyping of roles • To a critique of macro-economic reasoning, beyond the minimalist goal of gender equality.

4. Contextualising the proposals I would like to locate my proposals • Within the context of continents of the South, i.e. Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia and the Pacific, • Looking at the patterns of work and deprivation that women in these regions experience • Recognize that after the economic shocks of 2008-2009, a new world order has emerged, global economic power has shifted from the North to the South. • Another global crisis is on its way

5. Contextualising the proposals • As feminists of the South, we need to shift our approach to public policy • Must move away from old economic theories such as the trickle-down theory with policies that focus on GDP growth and surplus • Policies should take poor women as the engines of growth, as the beginning of public policy and macroeconomic reasoning. • Should not be limited to gender equality in sharing of work, but expanded into public investment in social infrastructure and gendering national budgets.

6. Proposals • We should be arguing for another economics- one in which care is also embedded, as it is a phenomenon that affects women across class and cultural divides. • We should be asking whether the woman in the lowest economic situation can redefine economic reasoning. • Women, especially from the poorest households, are the most neglected but most valuable contributors to the growth of the economy. • Time-use studies provide the evidence for this hypothesis, as well as provide support to these pillars of the society and economy. This is examined at a later stage of the paper.

7. WE have been distracted • This goal of gender equality and women’s empowerment is language that we have adopted from international mandates, especially those of the UN. • Making this into a global agenda has closed our eyes to differentiating our priorities from the conditions of difference. • Furthermore, these goals are not attainable without major changes to the macro economy and the pressures from outside • The debate should go beyond measurement of care work and its sharing, into the measurement of women’s contribution even to the SNA type of productive work

8. Our new Goals • Their location in the economies and how that location’s identification as well as circumstances can give value and visibility to that contribution • Transform the way we think of development offers, development policy, and engines of growth. • It would alter the very measures of progress. • The important questions are :- - Are the GDP and GNP useful measures? - Does the HDI offer a satisfactory substitute? - Are tools of valuation appropriate or have we other tools?

9. The value of time use studies for the removal of poverty • If we measure work by time, then women in the developing countries come out on top, as the most valuable people, as they spend more hours on everything than men. • So should time and not money or monetized value be the measure of value? • In 1975, I undertook a time use study in 6 villages in India. The results revealed strong variations across class, caste and culture, not just economic zones, in the work life of women and children. • In the mainstream economic data collections and policy formulation spaces in India, women were considered secondary bread winners(with males being the primary ones)

10. Poor women: Primary breadwinners • Women from landless households had a formal labour force participation rate of 74% which was higher than their men. • So, I challenged the perception that women were supplementary bread winners which is the way the formal statistical system sees women. The “aam aurat“ (common women) were actually the main support, i.e. the primary breadwinners for their households • I had collected the data not only across land classes, but also of children above 5 years [the detailed methodology which was observation and recording every half hour in every household six times over the year] showed the strong differences between boys and girls in access to leisure or education.

11. Importance of inclusion in formal labour force definitions • We later carried the findings forward to show that women had a self-perception of ‘not doing anything’ when in fact they may have been weeding, cutting grass, and any number of other activities • Why were we keen to show that they were formally economically active without taking note of the 3 Cs – Cooking, Childcare and Cleaning? • We wanted skills development, tools to improve their productivity and ease the strains, occupational hazard protection, apart from identification in the occupational tables which would entitle them to wages, and also enable the state to be aware of displacement.

12. Role of Feminist economists & data producers I will illustrate from India both 1 The value of time use studies, but specific to hypothesis or to alleviate burden or to prove the value of women's work to productive sectors 2. That dealing with the macro economic policy signals and directions as a template , as a blackboard and then putting our knowledge including time use, is valuable 3. I argue that such a contribution by us is more valuable to poor women than pointing out gender inequality or even the measuring care work or changing of roles

13. An Illustration from India • Working Group of Feminist Economists (WGFE) to gender the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-2012). The members included scholars who had worked in the field as well as data experts on different sectors of the economy. • Their inputs were directly introduced into the 2007-2012 Plan. A few illustrations of change are laid in the following slide.

14. The Four-legged Walk in the 11th Plan Knowledge drawn from:- • Data base • Specialization base • Knowledge which could be called voice drawn from the broad based consultations • Leading to significant inclusions in the 11th Plan

18. We need to consolidate our intellectual foundations as the South • We in the southern continents need to throw off the inherited concepts vocabularies as well as advisories • We need to redefine as well as re-name categories • In the following slides I will show how vocabulary , nomenclature oppresses as well as misdirects us

19. The oppression of vocabulary Another type of distortion, this time coming from the language and the vocabulary used to describe economic phenomena from the early industrialized countries of the North. To illustrate:- • If the home is called ‘workplace’ as indeed it is for the majority of women in the global South, then work at home would be recognized as work which can come under labour laws.   • Home-based workers are now recognized for labour welfare protection as a result of our advocacy. “Formal/informal” and “organized/unorganized”. • The so-called informal sector is very formal, but it is controlled in different ways from the factory floor

20. Contd:- The oppression of vocabulary • Similarly, the unorganized sector is extremely organized but in different ways. • Most of these forms are exploitative and unless named and understood correctly, they cannot be dealt with. These are names given to economic spaces and forms of work, and they are misnomers if seen from Africa or Asia • It is useful to change nomenclature for policy and analysis.

21. Conclusion: The role ofFeminist economists and data producers I have illustrated from India both 1. The value of time use studies, but specific to hypothesis or to alleviate burden or to prove the value of women's work to productive sectors 2. That dealing with the macro economic policy signals and directions as a template , as a blackboard and then putting our knowledge including time use, is valuable 3. I argue that such a contribution by us is more valuable to poor women than pointing out gender inequality or even the measuring care work or changing of roles